Over the last few years, the global economy has dealt with quite a number of difficult circumstances and people around the globe have faced financial loss. Although it may be difficult to think objectively now, historically economic change has often been based on expansions and recessions. Nonetheless, one thing that remains constant throughout these periods is the individuals who are faced with the continuous strains and worries that are uncommon to typical white-collar workers. These would be the low-income workers: people who sacrifice their time and efforts working long, relentless hours just to make ends meet, who struggle to pay their monthly rent or buy enough food to feed their family for the rest of the week. In Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, the author Barbara Ehrenreich takes on an experiment in order to better understand the working class. She leaves her desk job as a highly acclaimed writer and decides to take on the lower paid jobs herself. In this book, Ehrenreich cleverly utilizes statistics and her own personal experiences as well as the experiences of others, in order to bring to light the harsh reality facing those Americans who are shockingly close to poverty and debt despite their daily hard work. Throughout the book, Ehrenreich uses several rhetorical strategies, but there are a few which are more evident than others. One of these is the use of statistics as a way to communicate additional information. Many of these statistics are not directly used to prove her main thesis, but they do bring certain unknown information to the reader that will influence their perspective to match that of the author. One key thing to note, however, is that she uses footnotes in order to convey the statistical information, because she may have felt that placing the data directly in the middle of her text would interfere with the fluidity of her writing. This proves to be an implicit way of using the rhetorical technique of statistics. Our...

YOU MAY ALSO FIND THESE DOCUMENTS HELPFUL

...In my opinion, I feel that the author of “Nickel and Dimed”, Barbara Ehrenreich, had
ethical intentions when making the decision to investigate “poverty” by emerging herself in the
“low-wage lifestyle”. The ethical concern, however, is with her approach. I feel that the way in
which it was conducted could be viewed as degrading to those who do not have an alternative to
this way of living. True, hopeless poverty does not have those “reassuring limits” that Ehrenreich
had the ability to utilize when she was in a position that made her uncomfortable with the
consequences of the poverty she was attempting to study. By keeping her car, she writes, “Yes, I
could have walked more or limited myself to jobs accessible by public transportation,” and “I
just figured that a story about waiting for buses would not be very interesting to read.” The sole
allowance of this access to transportation, although she also maintained other things such as her
ATM card in instances that subject her to hunger or homelessness, was in the interest of
entertainment versus science. I do feel, though, that Ehrenreich was aware that she was never
going to be able to fully commit to this endeavor when she writes, “With all the real-life assets
I’ve built up in middle age—bank account, IRA, health insurance, multiroom home—waiting
indulgently in the background,” she admits, “there was no way I was going to ‘experience...

...Ed Fleming
Rhetorical Analysis Paper
English 102 Thurs Hybrid
In Barbara Ehrenreich's book "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by In America" we read about a middle aged journalist undertaking a social experiment of the greatest magnitude. The journalist is Ehrenreich herself and the experiment was to find out how a woman, recently removed from welfare, due to policy reform, would make it on a six or seven dollar an hour wage. The experiment itself started out as just a question in the middle of lunch with one of Ehrenreich's editors, it soon turned into a job assignment. Before starting the experiment, Ehrenreich laid out some ground rules for her to follow during the duration of the assignment. First she could never use her college degree, or other work experience to land a job. Second, she had to take the highest paying job that was offered to her, and do whatever she could to hold it. This means not quitting a job, no matter how grueling the work place environment was. Third, she had to find the cheapest living conditions she could find, with reasonable respect paid to personal safety, and basic privacy. Also before starting out Ehrenreich was sure to point out that while she did try to adhere to the rules as best she could, there was minor rule bending and occasionally rule breaking. The final problem Ehrenreich worked out before embarking on this journey, is how to market herself to the people she was about...

... 1
SOC 310
12/03/12
Nickel and Dimed Book Analysis
Looking at whether or not individuals living in poverty are considered to be a minority group by our contemporary culture is an interesting scenario. I’m a social work major so of course I want to think, yes, individuals living poverty are most definitely an oppressed group in society. Minimum wage is nowhere near to what could be classified as a living wage, and these positions often have little room for career advancement within the company. But I assume that what the question was getting at was whether or not those living in poverty are viewed as a minority group by America’s contemporary culture. The answer to that I believe is a “no.” People who belong to the upper and middle classes often don’t consider the fact that you can have a job yet still be living in poverty. A single parent may hold down two minimum-wage paying jobs, but still need a little help to make ends meet. And because they receive government assistance their hard work is ignored and they are simply viewed as lazy nuisances who are mooching off the middle classes’ tax dollars, not an oppressed minority group.
The American government has taken steps to show that it is more aware about the minority status of those living in poverty, and has taken some steps help people in that group. Beginning with the civil right’s act in 1964, discrimination based on race, religion, or sex...

...NICKEL AND DIMED BOOK REPORT
Barbara Ehrenreich is a journalist who wrote the book Nickel and Dimed. She goes undercover to see how it feels to work for $6 to $7 an hour. She leaves her regular life to explore the experiences of a minimum wage worker. Ehrenreich travels to Florida, Maine, and Minnesota, looking for jobs and places to live on a minimum wage salary. At one point in time, she had to work two jobs to makes ends meet. As she worked all these jobs, she discovered many problems in the social world. The things she went through were not the types of situations that she usually experienced. She wasn't used to living and working environments of the poor. She had to deal with the different personalities and customs of her co-workers, their living arrangement, and the management hierarchy in each job. She worked as a waitress at two different restaurants, as a maid service cleaning houses, and as a dietary aide at a nursing home.
Ehrenreich didn't want to be a waitress any more than some waitresses, but she did it for her research. Ehrenreich once stated that, "Waitres sing is also something I'd like to avoid, because I remember it leaving me bone-tired when I was eighteen." (13). Her first job was at Hearthside, a restaurant in Key West, Florida. She was hired as a waitress, starting at $2.43 plus tips. She worked the afternoon shift. Hearthside was being managed by a West Indian man by name of Phillip. The...

...﻿Madison Held
Mr. Clydesdale
Nickel and Dimed
12/8/14
Introduction
In the beginning of Nickle and Dimed, the main character and author, Barbara Ehrenreich establishes regulations and limits on how close she is actually willing to get to poverty. Her first rule is she could not (in her job hunt) “fall back on any skills derived from any education or usual work (Pg 4).” Rule number two is that she must accept the highest paying job that is offered to her, and she must work as hard as she can to keep that job. Her final rule, rule number three, Barbara must take the lowest priced housings she can find that provides sufficient privacy and safety. By the end of this story however at one point, all these rules were broken.
To limit herself on how close she is actually getting to real poverty for her experiment, she also sets some boundaries. The first boundary is that she will always have a car (Pg 5). She will never allow herself to become homeless, and she will never go hungry. These boundaries aren’t realistic because obviously people go hungry every day. Some people, go through a part in their life where they don’t have a house to live in, therefor they are homeless. These are the harsh realities of life that thousands of people have to face every day.
Guidelines I would establish for myself would be that I am never going to go hungry. I always get a car, and my final boundary would be that I have an emergency credit...

..."Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America."
by: Barbara Ehrenreich
Barbara Ehrenreich's, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, is a book that strives to change the way America perceives its working poor. Achieving the American Dream can be difficult, if not impossible for many people with stumbling blocks and obstacles along the way as portrayed in Nickel and Dimed, due to the cost of living in contrast to the wage of low or middle class earners.
Nickel and Dimed is essentially a journal of the time spent by the author, with her identity and PhD concealed, working in order to discover whether she could support a basic life style from earning minimum wage. This book shows how things such as stress in the work place, lack of proper benefits, cost of housing and how what was merely an experiment for Ehrenreich, is a real detriment for many others. In her experiment Ehrenreich finds cheap housing and works various minimum wage jobs paying between $6-$7 an hour all while assessing her findings. In working as a waitress in Florida, a maid in Maine, and a sales clerk in Minnesota, Ehrenreich soon discovers that even the "lowliest" of occupations require exhausting and strenuous efforts rewarded by a wage that barely covers living expenses and everyday costs.
As a native resident to Florida, Ehrenreich doesn't venture...

...Research Essay: Nickel and Dimed
Looking at the state of low wage workers in America today, many are struggling to make ends meet and provide basic needs to themselves and their families. Is this a new situation or just a necessary part of the overall American economic structure? In her book, “Nickel and Dimed” (2001), Barbara Ehrenreich steps out of her comfortable, middle class existence to find out how the people working in the lowest rung of America’s economy are getting by. Using her sarcasm, dry wit, and no-nonsense storytelling style, makes her main claim that in the economy of today, low wage workers are not anywhere near making it, let alone moving up the socio-economic ladder. This claim is hotly debated in every possible theater, from the political campaign trail, in the press, and at the local community college campus. Ehrenreich also states that there are several accompanying causes that are also at play, that high housing costs, access to basic health care, and the lack of a basic “living wage” contribute to a “hidden-cost” economy, and that they are working against people in low wage jobs. There are numerous arguments that have been presented that both support and refute Ehrenreich’s claims, mainly examining the validity of her examples, support information, and her execution of the experiment. Discussion of these different points of view and analysis will provoke further healthy...

...Macro theories:
Nickel and Dimed, On Not Getting by In America” by Barbara Ehrenreich, 2001
1) Barbara was responding to 1996 TANF (5 years) reform that modified AFDC (lifetime warranted)
SSI benefits for children or adults with disabilities
What jobs available to single mothers?
Could single parent live on single income and it was an experiment for Barbara to explore it.
Welfare queens by Ronald Reigan
Law wanted increase marriages,
Work force
2)
3) Critical conscientious
Symbolic interaction reacting to a symbol
http://www.gradesaver.com/nickel-and-dimed-on-not-getting-by-in-america/study-guide/section3/
1) The novel is based on the investigative journalism. The author Barbara Ehrenreic decided that the best way to acquire an accurate portrayal of the low working class is to experience it herself. The purpose of Ehrenreich’s book is simply to determine if she “could match income to expenses, as the truly poor attempt to do every day”.
Beyond issues of income Nickel and Dimed focuses our attention on the problems of everyday living that the working poor must overcome. Problems like personal health, safety, friendships, and personal dignity.
As the novel based on investigative journalism it is not in conflict with ethical issues from social work perspective.
2) The novel was first published in 2011 and...